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"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 30 Isles 3, Washington 1 Andrew Ladd and John Tavares scored goals in the first 1:34 of the 2nd ...

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Isles try to avoid .500 for 1st time in nearly 33 years

It was January 16, 1978.

The Islanders defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 at the Coliseum to even their all-time (regular season) record at 178-178-83. That was nearly 33 years, and over 2500 regular season games ago. The Isles won 5-2 two nights later in Minnesota, and went over .500 for the first time in their history.

They have been over NHL .500 ever since. The Isles enter tonight's game, the 2989th in franchise history, having earned 2,989 points. Their record is 1288-1287-413. The Isles need a win tonight to avoid being a .500 team. Otherwise, on Saturday, they will play only the third game in their history as a .500 team. They were 178-178-83 in 1978, and they were 1-1-0 after the first two games they ever played.

Four times in their history, the Isles have been 71 games under .500 -- most recently after losing in Toronto on December 28, 1974, dropping their record to 44-115-33.

They have also been 199 games over .500 -- more recently on October 22, 1988, when a 7-3 win over Quebec raised their record to 642-443-198. They would go 3-20-1 in their next 24, and have never approached +199 since.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: forever1940.blogspot.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick